Process of refining leady matte.



' 11. v. HYBINETTE.

i PROCESS OF REFININYG LEADY MATTE.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 25. 1915.

2 1,175,266. Patented Mar. 14,1916.

' Matte Melt/11g Furnace NOA]: VICTOR HYBINETTE, OF CHRISTIANIA, NORWAY.

PROCESS OF REFINING LEADY MATTE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

"Patented Mar. 14, 1916.

Application filed January 25, 1915. Serial No. 4,255.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NoAK VICTOR HYBI- NETTE, a subject of the King of Norway, residing at Christiania, Norway, have invented certain new and useful Im rovements in Processes of Refining eady Matte; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of re erence marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

My invention relates to the treating of so called leady matte, that is to say copper matte containing more or less, generally a considerable amount of lead. It is well known that there are several difiiculties connected with the treating of this material, and that the processes hitherto known for refining the same not only are very expensive and ,requiring very great plants, but also result in the loss of lead, the usual way of refining such matte being to blow off the lead together with impurities in a converter whereby it is necessary to treat the flue dust in an elaborate process for extracting the lead.

My mvention consists in a process, 1n which I obtain the lead and with the lead also the precious metals and other elements in the matte directly from the molten matte by way of a contact action, in which pure copper causes the separation of the lead. By causing this action to be effected on the counter current principle, I am able to carry out the process in such Way that I can. produce either pure copper or copper refined to such degreee, that the complete refinement may easily be performed electrolytically and on the other hand I obtain metallic lead which may easily be purified, thereby obtaining silver, arsenic and other valuable products.

In the following I shall explain my invention reference being thereby had to the annexed drawing, in which Figure 1 is a diagram illustrating one form of apparatus for carrying out the process, and Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic horizontal section on line 3-3 of Fig. 3, of a continuously operating furnace, and Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 22 of Fig. 2.

According to my process I melt the leady matte in a suitable furnace as for instance A. The molten matte is taken over to one or more furnaces, in which the matte is held at the suitable temperature, and in which the lead isseparated by forming a bottom of metallic lead in the said furnace or furnaces. In the diagram Fig. 1 is shown a series of three furnaces B, C, D. The matte comes first to the furnace B, then to furnace C and lastly to furnace D. From the latter it is brought to a Bessemer converter E. When it is introduced in the converter it is or may be practically free from lead. In the Bessemer converter the matte is treated in the usual way to obtain-pure copper. Part of this pure co per is caused to pass the furnaces B, C, in a direction opposite to the direction in which the matte passed the said furnaces. The efi'ect of the pure copper coming into contact with matte containing lead is that a bottom of metallic lead is separated, and as the matte and the copper pass the separating furnace or furnaces in opposite directions, the matte will successively lose its contents of lead and take up the equivalent amount of copper. from the bottom. Together with the lead bottom precious metals as silver,- gold and also arsenic, antimony and" other elements will be separated. If a number'of separating furnaces isused .as indicated in the diagram, these may be tilting furnaces of the crucible type and the materials in the as I furnaces may be passed over from one to another by way of a ladle.

. Referring to the diagram, Fig. 1, a represents the furnace .or equivalent for meltin the matte. This matte, as indicated by the arrow, is transferred to the first crucible b or equivalent by a ladle or otherwise, 'while lead is tapped off from the bottom. The upper layer of matte in crucible b is ladled out into crucible c and the bottom layer of more refined matte from crucible c is transferred into crucible ;b-j. as indicated by the arrow m. The upper layer in: crucible '0 is transferred to the converter." This diagram presupposes a ladling'aoperation, and the matte may be considered as treated in stages, but these stages may be so merged into one another as to make the'process substantially continuous, by the use of asingle separating furnace in the place of the crucibles.

If only a single separating furnace is used this may be in the form of a long furnace V as shown'in plan'view in Fig. 2. Such furnace-may be provided with stag- Copper is introduced at the opposite end to the upper layer of the molten bath, and refined matte, i. e. substantially copper sulfid, withdrawn from below the molten surface. Referring to Fig. 2, the matte may be considered as taking the course of the full arrows, as indicated by the arrow y into crucible (1, while the lower layer in crucible d is transferred, as indicated by the arrow it into crucible c. crucible, which is refined matte, is transferred to the converter 6, andis substantially-copper sulfid. The sulfur is removed matte, and copper discharged. Some of the bessemerized matte or copper discharged from the converter is transferred to the last crucible. The number of crucibles between the -,;melting furnace at and'converter 6 will depend upon the character of the matte handled. It will thus be seen that the contents of the crucibles increase in copper content toward the converter 6 while the lead content decreases, practically pure cop per sulfid being taken from the top layer -.of the crucible, and lead containing other reduced metals from the first crucible a,

the matte from the melting furnace a traveling counter to the copper introduced from the converter 6, the matte taking the course indicated by the full arrows, and the copper the course of the dotted arrows.

Other kinds of apparatus than above indicated may of course beused for carrying out the process.

lVhat I claim is:

1. The method of refining copper matte containing sulfids of lead and other metals, which comprises melting the matte, refining The top layer of the last' same by adding bessemerized matte to the molten matte, bessemerizing the refined matte and drawing off the crude lead resulting from the refining step.

2. The method of refining matte, which comprises freeing the metal constituent of a maintained bath of matte having the greatest affinity for sulfur from its combinded sulfur and adding a portion of resulting metal to a fresh quantity of molten matte, thereby increasing in the matte its content of said metal and causing the re duction of the other sulfid contents to metal.

3. The method of refining copper matte containing sulfids of lead and other metals, which comprises progressing matte in molten condition through successive receptacles, bessemerizing the matte from the last receptacle, returning bessemerized matte to the last receptacle, and progressing separated constituents through the receptacles counter, to the aforesaid progression of the matte.

4. The method of refining copper matte ,containing sulfids of lead and other metals, as""--i's customary in bessemerlzlng copper whichcomprises maintaining a molten bath of matte, constraining the flow of metal from-one end of the bath to the other, in troducing molten matte and withdrawing lead. at one end of said bath at different levels, and introducing bessemerized matte and withdrawing refined matte at the other end of said bath at different levels.

5. The method of refining mixed sulfids, which comprises maintaining a long molten bath of matte, retarding the flow of the bath from one end to the other, introducing molten sulfids and also withdrawing a metal at one end of said bath but at different levels, introducing a reduced metal constituent of the bath capable of reducing sulfids of other metals and also withdrawing partially refined sulfids at the other end of said .bath, but at different levels.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

NOAK VICTOR HYBINETTE. Witnesses: f

M. E. GUTTORENSEN,

C. F. HANSEN. 

